Near the end of Hyper and Deep Attention, Hayles describes different types of new interactive lectures where students participate in the learning process by looking up and sharing relevant material and comments through linked computers and screens. It’s a strange concept to me–it seems like these methods would be distracting more so than helpful and diminish the purpose of attending a class as opposed to just Googling what you’d like to know.
It doesn’t seem like the alternative methods detailed on page 196 promote interaction among the students and professor so much as interaction with a device of some kind. If someone starts presenting information, how useful is it to immediately start your own research on the topic while the lecture is still in progress? Why is commentary being a passive, background activity instead of a live conversation that engages the entire group?
The push to integrate more and more technology into classrooms seems to enable diffused attention. Perhaps students are becoming less and less able to have deep attention because their classes are being made into hyper attentive experiences.
In some ways, the difference between the previous generation and our generation’s experience of learning is personal responsibility–we need to learn to invest attention more deliberately instead of requiring more and more stimuli. According to the reading, less than 10% of the population has an identifiable disorder that prevents them from being able to focus themselves. It might be the comment by the professor who assigns short stories instead of novels, but I think the concessions being made to cater to those without focus are getting out of hand.
At what point can we say that young people need to learn the skill of deep attention instead of adapting teaching methods to a ridiculous extent?
I come from a high school that was all about having computers and smart boards in classrooms, but I don’t think that this helps instruction at all. Yeah, you can diversify your lessons and have students make presentations and stuff, but I know that the minute you put a computer in front of a student they are no longer thinking about their homework. I mentioned in class that I thought school computers needed to restrict internet access because computers can easily catch viruses and such. But I also know that students will take any opportunity to tune out their teacher/professor and go on Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/their email, and do other assignments or anything other than listen and take notes and work on the assignment they should be working on. I personally am really good at working on essays for one class in another class. Or, now that Apple has added the ability to text from your computer, I usually sit and do that instead of take notes during a lecture. I guess I just don’t trust students enough to give them computers in class.
And with smart boards and projectors and such, it’s all too much. Yeah it makes the teacher’s job easier, but looking up at a projector for an hour plus hurts. It hurts your eyes, your neck, your back, your everything. I just with people would give out handouts or something.